Anime Awaodori Poster Sparks Crimewave

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]This report (Japanese) explains how the local tourist office of Tokushima City produced an anime-style poster to publicize their Awaodori festivities in August. Some 600 in total were put up all over the city and at railway stations around Shikoku. Unfortunately, the posters proved to be so popular that they prompted a spate of thefts. Perhaps more surprisingly, a couple have appeared on the Yahoo auction site, the first went for 83,000 yen while the other sold last week for 93,000 yen. The tourist office is delighted at all the attention but less than pleased that stolen posters are being openly sold. They have been fielding daily requests from people who want to buy copies legally but, so far, they have announced no plans to start selling them.

[Coligny]

[floatl][/floatl]This report (Japanese) explains how the local tourist office of Tokushima City produced an anime-style poster to publicize their Awaodori festivities in August. Some 600 in total were put up all over the city and at railway stations around Shikoku. Unfortunately, the posters proved to be so popular that they prompted a spate of thefts. Perhaps more surprisingly, a couple have appeared on the Yahoo auction site, the first went for 83,000 yen while the other sold last week for 93,000 yen. The tourist office is delighted at all the attention but less than pleased that stolen posters are being openly sold. They have been fielding daily requests from people who want to buy copies legally but, so far, they have announced no plans to start selling them.

These peop... erm... this... country... should get a life...

[Iraira]

The tourist office is delighted at all the attention but less than pleased that stolen posters are being openly sold. They have been fielding daily requests from people who want to buy copies legally but, so far, they have announced no plans to start selling them.

Now, I was never a business major, but if you're office is getting calls about this and you are seeing foolz paying 9 man, wouldn't it make sense to at least rummage through the office closet for a few lost copies to E-bay fatten my bank account, and if you're the tourist office boss, it doesn't make more than a kindergarten education to see that you could be making more money.

[Mulboyne]

Iza has an article (Japanese) saying that 4 people are being charged with poster thefts. A girl, a male friend, her mother and her grandmother which is a pretty interesting composition for a gang. One of the posters they sold went for 30,000 yen.